The Black Demon
by ArwenWhitethorn
Summary: Fourteen year old Giza Silverstorm, the Black Demon, is the last witch from the once mighty clan of the Silverstorms. She comes to Omega because of an alliance with the king of Adarlan. Fighting in the war was what she came for, but on which side? Giza has faced a lot of horrors, but maybe the worst is still before her.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This is a new fanfiction I am starting. All things connected to the Throne of Glass series belong to Sarah Maas. You may see elements of the Hobbit books and movies in here. All of it belongs to Tolkien and Peter Jackson. I got the idea about the dragon from a fanfiction called Pure Heart by blackdragon157.

Chapter one

Giza didn't like that place. Not Omega, the mountain the witches were permanently living in, but the one at the other side of the The Hollow. Those strange roars and smells coming from there were of something that was not quite right, something changed. The only thing she knew about being there were the Wyverns the king of Adarlan was making…somehow. But the others-she wasn't sure if she wanted to know.

-Lady Silverstorm?

Ah, that human again. Normally Giza had nothing against humans, unlike other witches, but particularly those here were starting to get annoying. With their weird smell and greasy smiles. She has been travelling with them for the past few weeks and really needed to get away before she killed someone. The only reason for her to stay with them was the alliance offered from the king of Adarlan. He wanted the help of the witches for war and they were all gathering together into the Ferrian hollow. The only reason for them to accept the alliance was that when the war was over he had promised to give them back the West Desolation, their long lost home. Giza went there not only because of that, but because she had no other choice. When the war started, every witch was going to be hunted, captured and killed. Giza was a good fighter, but a thirteen year old girl was not much against a few hundred angry people. She had nothing and no one else of her kind though-she was the last of the once great clan of the Silverstorms. She had been alone for the most of her life and now could be a part of something bigger. She wasn't going to miss that chance. The problem-those guys had to escort her to the hollow.

-What?-she turned her dark eyes speckled with gold to the human. Normally only Blackbeaks had those eyes, but Giza guessed that probably Silverstorms had also had them before they disappeared.

-The meeting stars in ten minutes.-The meeting. She had to go and present herself to the three clans and their matrons. Present. Most likely to prove that she really was a Silverstorm. Her clan was more like a legend than reality, and many witches tried to present themselves as Silverstorms. They were easily caught though, because the Silverstorms had one specific feature-a silver lock in their always dark hair. It couldn't be imitated-no dye could give you that molten silver colour.

They were walking through endless stone corridors, deeper and deeper in Omega, until they finally reached the main hall. Giza took a deep breath and opened the wooden doors.

Suddenly a hundred pairs of eyes stared at her. On a high stone platform were standing the Three matrons-a Blueblood, a Yellowleg and a Blackbeak. Around them were standing a few groups of witches now starring at her. Giza bowed in a sign of respect, then looked back up.

-Giza Silverstorm.- Said the Blackbeak matron, who Giza recognized because of her appearance-she was the middle aged witch, Blackbeaks always chose middle aged because of the traditions-Prove that you are the one you are presenting yourself as.

Giza pulled the hood of her dark purple cloak back and revealed her hair-the silver lock shone bright in the light of the torches.

-I am who I am presenting myself for and I came here to fight together with my sisters and help earn back our home. But I would like to make one thing clear-I serve nobody except myself and I won't be fine with someone disrespecting me because of my age.

The three matrons remained quiet, a sign that they accepted. Giza bowed again, then turned around and left the room. It was time to go see her ride.

Manon POV

Manon Blackbeak was ready to attack if something went wrong, and so were the rest of the Thirteen. When the Silverstorm witch came into the room, Manon wandered if there hasn't been some kind of a mistake, even though she saw the silver lock. The girl was a child.

Not that she behaved like one. She stood in front of the three matrons and didn't show a single sign of fear. It was an impressive thing, and then she told them that she was taking orders from no one. Her grandmother had punished witches for a smaller thing, but she did nothing against the girl. And then Manon got it. No that she didn't, she couldn't. Young witches were sacred and it was a crime to hurt one. The girl knew that perfectly and had used it.

After the meeting, Manon sent her shadows, Eda and Briar, after the little witch. She wanted to know where she was going and what was she doing. Not taking orders, with no clan to think about, the Silverstorm could easily betray them.

The shadows came back half an hour later.

-Report.-She told them

-We can't exactly explain it. You have to see it on your own.-Briar said. Manon followed them with Asterin, the second in her command, always by her side, through the corridors, to one she hadn't been into and to a small stone door.

-Inside-Eda pointed. Asterin drawled her sword and Manon opened the door.

She had expected a lot of things. A dragon wasn't one of them.

The moment she opened the door the giant creature's head snapped in her direction and the scales on his stomach glowed in blue.

-Aradace, no!-A voice shouted and the glow faded. From behind the dragon came out the Silverstorm and looked at them with half surprised half angry look.

-So-she said-may I know what are you doing here?

-I could ask you the same.-Manon answered with cool tune.

-No clear answers, huh? Well, alright then. I will answer first. I came here, in my private hall, to see my ride.

-Your ride?

-Yes, my ride. You didn't think you were the only ones who get to fly, did you?

-This is not a Wyvern.

-No, it is not. Aradace is a dragon and he wasn't created by the king of Adarlan. I have a permission to keep him here and we were just going for a flight.

Now Manon could take a better look at the dragon. Its white scales were like pearls, shining in different colours in the light coming from the open balcony on the other side of the hall. Its eyes were icy blue, now focused on her. It was massive, only its head was longer than Manon was high. Its teeth, showing from time to time, were white and the size of daggers, probably just as sharp. There were four long claws coming from each of its four paws. Its wings were now folded next to his body, and there was a saddle on its neck.

-So if you excuse us…-Aradace lowered his neck so the girl could climb on the saddle-we will go now.

The dragon turned around, walked to the edge of the balcony…and jumped off. Just to rise back up seconds later. The four witches went to the balcony and watched as it got higher and higher in the sky, then made a sharp dive and got back up after. Manon was almost sure that she could hear the little witch laughing.

-Let's get out of here-Asterin said. They turned and walked out of the hall, silently agreeing to tell no one about this.

Giza POV

Giza didn't know how they have found her, but she also didn't care. Her dragon wasn't a secret and she wasn't hiding like some thief. Right now, the only thing she was focused on was the flight. The amazing view, the wind singing around her-that was what she was born to do, born to be. Wild and free.

Aradace had been with her for five years. From the moment she had found him as a hatchling in a cave high in a mountain, abandoned by his mother. At that time she was all alone in the wild. She didn't remember who had left her there or why. She only remembered that she had been around three then. Everything else was clouded.

Giza got the little dragon, no bigger than a dog then and took care of him. She had never had a friend and it had been nice to know that she wasn't alone. Dragons grew amazingly fast. For two years he was already bigger than a bear, and for five he had reached the size of a full grown dragon.

Giza came out of her memories and saw that it was starting to get dark. They had been in the air for more than three hours. Giza patted Aradace's neck and he turned the direction, landing on the big balcony in Omega. As a member of a legendary clan, she had some privileges. She had her own private chambers and the special hall for Aradace. The actual reason to ask for one was that if Aradace was placed with the Wyverns, there was going to be a bloodbath. His name meant "Mighty" for a reason.

They landed and she jumped off his neck, then took the saddle off. She placed it on a special hook and then closed the giant wooden doors that led to the balcony. It became very windy in the nights and even dragons got cold. Because of that there was a giant fireplace on the other wall. It was easy to ignite it when you had a giant fire breathing lizard next to you.

-Are you going to ignite it up or not?-She asked her dragon, who sent her an annoyed look and breathed a jet of blue flames in the fireplace. The hall immediately started warming up.

-Good night, Aradace.- Giza said and then left from the small door that led to her chambers. There she took a warm bath, put on a pair of black trousers, a white shirt, her black boots and dark purple cloak, then left for dinner, not forgetting to hide a dagger in her boot. After all, iron claws didn't ever work the best way and you never knew what you were going to encounter in a mountain full of Ironteeth witches.

She easily found the dining hall and got a bow of she preferred not to know what, then quietly ate it on a distant table. After she finished, Giza decided that she was going to start hunting her food. She was ready to leave when she heard a voice behind her.

-So what have we got here? The little Silverstorm.-Giza turned to the sight of the witch she had seen standing next to the Yellowleg matron. Probably her heiress- What is your name, girl?

-Who is asking?-Giza answered with the icy tune she used when she didn't like someone.

-Pick your words carefully, girl. It's Iskra Yellowleg you are talking to.-the witch hissed.

-And it's Giza Silverstorm the Black Demon you are asking. I am not exactly the one you want to have problems with.

Iskra laughed.

-It sounds funny to you? Why don't you go ask the demons of the Midnight cavern if I am right? Oh wait, you can't. Only the chosen can enter and get out alive.

-You can't prove that!

-Oh, can't I?-Giza pulled the necklace she always wore off her neck and held it in front of her. Hanging on it there was a purple crystal. A Demon crystal that could be found only into the Midnight cave, a sacred cave dedicated to the Three Faced goddess. If you went in, you had to pass through demons and horrors. If you got a piece of the crystal that grew in the heart of that cave, it was a proof that you were chosen and protected by the Three Faced goddess. It was a dangerous thing to do, but Giza had done it anyway. Not without a few new scars thought.

She enjoyed Iskra's face expression for a second, then turned around and walked out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: I forgot to say that in the first chapter. SPOILERS from ToG to EoS! Nothing for KoA(I haven't read it yet.)

A little shorter chapter this time. Also, I want to tell you that I am going to mix the events from QoS and EoS and pull the freeing of the magic a little earlier than in QoS so it fits the story. There won't be Morat, everything will happen in Omega. That doesn't mean that I am going to skip all the events.

Giza collapsed in bed immediately after she closed the door of her room. Just now the fatigue from the whole day came and almost crashed her. She curled on a ball and fell asleep. And dreamed.

She was standing on a green glade at a forest. She could hear shouts in the distance. Angry shouts.

Suddenly a dark haired woman, holding a child, ran out of the woods and stopped next to a big oak tree. She put the sleeping child, a little girl that looked around three, next to the tree and kneeled beside her. Giza heard her words:

-"I am sorry I can't stay with you. But it is better for you to grow away from this world. Your father knows the beings in this forest. They will protect you, because he couldn't."

The shouts grew closer. The woman stood up and turned towards them.

-"I will have to go now. They will be here soon."- She whispered and then shook her hands. Iron claws came out of them. She turned to the child once more. Giza could see the tears in her eyes. Then she ran at the directions of the shouts.

Giza woke up and stood straight in her bed. Something in that dream has shaken her. She didn't even know what. She didn't know the woman, who had been a witch, or the child. She just felt strange.

Probably just all the stress from yesterday had taken over her dreams, she thought. Pushing the dream at the back of her mind, she got out of bed. While dressing up, Giza caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror put on the wall. She looked up and got closer to it, starring at the reflection. Her hair looked like it has been attacked by a wild squirrel, her lips were cracked from the coldness of the yesterday flight, and there were red marks on the place where she had pressed her face against her hand while sleeping. With a few words, she looked awful. But it was not her face that had caught her attention. But her ears. Which were pointy.

Of course, she had known that they were pointy from long ago, but she had never paid much attention. She thought that it was a common witch feature. Now, after seeing other witches, whose ears were perfectly round, hers have started to worry her. She also had those weird canine teeth, which were longer and sharper than it was normal.

Some Silverstorm feature, nothing more, she thought, but that hardly calmed her feelings. So she focused on putting her leather flying suit on and braiding her hair, that hardly reached under her shoulders, on the back of her head. Then she got out of the room and to the hall Aradace was sleeping in. She decided to start calling it the Dragon hall.

She had to wake Aradace up. He wasn't really fond of that, but they had to catch some breakfast and today was the day the witches were going to choose their Wyverns, so they couldn't be late. Giza wanted to be there and see the Wyverns together with the others, even though she wasn't going to choose one.

Her first tries to get the dragon up were failure. He perfectly knew what he had to get up, he just didn't want to.

-"Alright, then…"-Giza said finally. She was starting to get very angry and annoyed-"If you are not coming, I am going to go and choose a Wyvern. Then you would be able to sleep as long as you want."

That seemed to work. Dragons were very intelligent creatures even though they couldn't talk, but Aradace still decided that she was serious. He got up and looked at her like a kicked puppy.

-"Oh, come on. Don't be such a baby. Of course I am not serious."-Giza said while putting his saddle on. She wouldn't leave her dragon even if they offered her all the gold in the world. They say that witches are born without hearts, but Giza knew she had one. And unlike the other witches, she could smile. And laugh. And love. And she loved her dragon, he was the only family she knew.

As they flew out of Omega, the cold air cleared Giza's mind. She watched as the Sun rouse up at the horizon, colouring the sky in soft pink. Then they turned to the long rocky canyon, surrounding Omega, and soon arrived to the rock site where the clans were gathering together.

Giza could just land on a distant rock and watch quietly from there. But where was the fun in that?

-"Let's give them a good show"-she told Aradace. Then directed him to the rock site.

He made a dive and flew close enough to the witches so they could see the rider on his back. Then he riced back in the sky, doing loopings. Then, after a few minutes, Giza decided that it had been enough and he landed on the rock site. She slid down from the saddle and on the ground. Where the witches were looking at her with amazement, shock and….could that be fear?

-"Giza Silverstorm."-she presented herself to the witches that hadn't been on the meeting.-"Nice to meet you."

During the whole choosing, she kept a mask of full neutralism on her face, except the sharp smile that was there. It sent a clear message.-"Don't annoy me and you won't have problems"

A roar shook the mountain as the biggest Wyvern to now came out of the iron gate. He was almost as big as Aradace, which was huge for a Wyvern.

Giza stood at the edge of the rock site, next to a white haired witch, who she recognized as the Blackbeak hairess. The beast got closer to the lure, a small Wyvern chained to the wall. Giza felt pity for the poor animal. It wasn't his fault that he had been born tiny.

The giant male attacked the lure and hit the old wound on its hip. He knew where to hit so he could enjoy the pain. And while the other witches looked at the picture with pleasure, Giza closed her eyes. Not from fear-she wasn't scared. She just knew that if she kept watching she was going to draw her sword and go to kill the beast, because she just couldn't watch how animals were tortured for fun. She had never liked it. Spending her whole life in the forests, Giza had grown attached to the animals.

-"If you want him"-a voice whispered behind her-" why don't you go and get him?"

Giza opened her eyes just in time to see Iskra pushing the Blackbeak witch in the pit. She accidently caught Giza's cloak while trying to hold on place. And they both fell down.

Dear gods, the pain. That was the first thing Giza felt as she first hit a rock site that slowed her falling, and then the bottom of the pit. She didn't feel like she had something broken, but she couldn't take a closer look. One of the reasons was the giant Wyvern starring at her with hungry eyes.

The first time he attacked she was able to escape. The second she wasn't that lucky. He slammed her with his tale and she hit the rocky wall. Seconds separated her from death. And then the lure attacked the giant Wyvern, pushing it aside.

They both have survived. She and the Blackbeak heiress, whose name Giza learned was Manon. And Manon choose the lure as her Wyvern. "A warrior". That was she had called him. She was probably right.

Giza needed to relax. And by it she meant to go and train. It had always calmed her.

After she entered the training grounds, she noticed a few things. First, the gathering there were the Thirteen, Manon's gathering. Second, the few younger gatherings where being taught by two red haired witches, who were laughing maniacally while tossing knives around.

Giza wasn't exactly in the mood for swords or daggers, so she took her bow off her back and went to the side of the hall where there where targets.

Shooting was a useful skill to have. No one had tough Giza how to do it-she had learned alone, with a lot of training. The bow she got from a crafter in exchange for three wild rabbits.

She started. Most arrows were hitting the center, but she missed a few times. Far from best, she taught. In a battle, you had no chance to miss. If you did, you died. That was the reality. Hard and cruel.

Finishing with the bow she looked at the red haired witches, now tossing knives at the ones who they had to train. That had to teach them to be fast and swift, but it didn't work so well. Most of them were bleeding and didn't look happy. But Giza taught "Well, why not?" and went closer.

-"May I join?"-she asked. One of the witches jumped and dropped her knives.

Giza had accidently sneaked behind someone again. From the years of hunting she had learned to walk soundless. That sometimes played bad jokes on her, especially when the "someone" she scared was a witch holding knives.

But the redhead just gave her an iron teeth grin and tilted her head in the direction of the young gatherings. Giza went there, not paying attention to the glares she got, and stood on the front. Then the training started again.

Manon POV

Manon had never seen such speed. The Silverstorm, Giza, she remembered, was now just a blurred spot escaping from the knives with such ease as if she had been born doing it. Then she catched on of them, turned around and tossed it back into the demon twins' direction, almost hitting Falon.

After the training finished, Giza stretched up and was ready to go. She said goodbye to the twins, who answered her with the same, which they did rarely.

-"She is pretty good for a child."-someone said from behind. Manon turned to see Asterin, her cousin and second in her command behind her.

-"We will see about that soon. Is she going to fight in the Military games?"

-"Not alone. She will be given the choice to decide if she wants to fight as a member of one of the clans. My advice is to try to draw her at our part. If she really has a piece of The Dark crystal, she must be a fighter. Her dragon would also be a big advantage."

-"I would think on that. "

-"Except that"-Asterin continued-"I don't remember the last time Falin and Falon have been so, well….nice to someone."

Manon also didn't .


	3. Voting

I am making a voting for something. I can't tell you exactly what (if I say it would be a future chapter spoiler), but I am planning something and I want to know who do you choose so I can write the plot this way. The two characters I have in mind are Rowan and Manon. So can you review who do you vote for please? I will choose the one with the most votes.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey there, sorry for the lack of updates. This story is not dead, but I wasn't really happy with where it was going. I want to redo a few of the chapters and maybe turn the story around completely, that is why I deleted a lot of them. I will try to update more frequently from now on . Thank you for reading my story.

-Arwen


	5. Chapter 5

Giza couldn't sleep. Not that she wasn't trying to, but there was something that just wasn't letting her to. Some weird smell had settled in the room and even with the open windows, it just didn't want to go away. So, at the end, Giza just gave up on sleeping and started searching around the room, trying to find the source of the smell. Turned out it was coming from behind the big closet at the other end of the room. Giza, now fully awake, decided that the giant, heavy wardrobe wasn't stopping her and started pushing it aside.

It took her maybe half an hour of cursing, falling and hitting the wardrobe before the stupid thing finally moved. Just to reveal a just as big and probably just as heavy door. With the little difference the door was already pulled open.

Giza opened it a little wider and realized that there was a staircase behind it. The unknown smell was getting stronger now. So she had been right, it was coming from here. Giza hesitated for a moment, but her curiosity won and she went down the stairs.

There weren't any torches down the stairs, but it didn't get darker. It seemed like the air itself was shining with some kind of inner light. Giza would have said magical, but she knew that magic didn't exist in this world. Not anymore.

The stairs ended and Giza found herself in a long stone corridor. On one side, there were many arks leading to different corridors, and on the other, a wall with a big iron plate in the beginning of it. As Giza got closer, she realized that there was something carved in it.

Symbols. Hundreds of symbols spiraled around the iron plate. Some of them kind of looked like animals, but Giza had no idea what they meant or why they were there, so she turned her attention to the arks. There were seven of them, a symbol carved above each one. And yet again, the symbols made no sense. Two of the arks were half destroyed and the corridors behind were blocked by stones. The other five looked fine. Giza realized that the weird smell was coming from one of them, and so she stepped inside.

The corridor ahead was dark and cold, as if that energy in the air was afraid to come in. The darkness didn't worry Giza though, she could see in the dark pretty well. What actually worried her were the faint strange sounds that were coming from deeper into the corridor, similar to the ones made by a campfire as it burned the wood. She could have gone back, of course. But, as strange and scary as it was, something in that corridor was calling to be found. So she took a deep breath and continued forward.

It seemed like it got colder and darker the further she went. It suddenly started getting lighter in the corridor. And hotter. And smoke appeared, swirling around the ancient columns that supported the ceiling of the corridor. Giza turned the corner, just to be met with a blast of heat and blinding flames.

As her eyes adjusted, she realized she was standing before another ark, but this one was blocked with iron bars. Through them Giza could see a giant hall, filled from one end to the other with giant stoves, placed next to one of the walls. Next to the other there were hundreds of iron chests, locked with huge locks and build onto a big pile. No humans, or witches, or anything alive could be seen around. The air was heavy with the disgusting smell that Giza had been following, that she could now only compare with a rotten carcass.

One half of Giza's mind was screaming at her to get the hell out of there, the other was telling her to go and explore the giant secret room. Giza decided on the second option. This was far too interesting to be left unsearched. Especially when there was a place where the iron bars were bended just enough for Giza to get through.

She entered the hall and turned her head at the direction of the stoves. Just now did she realize that inside were some kind of black round objects. They looked like some kind of collars, in different shapes and sizes. Giza was sure she had seen them somewhere, but she couldn't remember where. They were probably what was in the locked in the iron boxes.

Giza snapped her head right as she heard footsteps. She quickly snuck back into the corridor and hid behind a wall, listening to the footsteps that grew louder and louder. There was a sound of a heavy object being moved, then the clang of a key turning around into a lock. Then there was a hissing, almost otherworldly voice, that filled Giza with fear:

-"How long until everything is ready?"

Another, more human voice answered:

-"A month at most, my lord. Then they will be ready to be send to Wendlyn and anywhere else you want them."

-"Good."-the hissing voice sounded pleased. And it was two times as scary as it was before. Without really thinking what she was doing, Giza took a step away from the wall and started running back down the corridor. She got out of the ark, dashed up the stairs and slammed the heavy iron door behind her.

She sat down on the floor, back against the door, shacking and breathing heavily. It took her almost half an hour to calm down and think about what had happened. Whatever that voice had belonged to, it hadn't been a human, or a witch, or any other creature she had ever seem. It had felt like it didn't belong here, in this world, like there were waves of fear and horror coming from its sole presence here. That was what had made Giza run like crazy, just wanting to get away from there.

She got up and started pushing the wardrobe back into place, making sure that it was pressed against the door. That it couldn't be opened from behind. Then she shut all the windows and went back into her bed. Giza sure as hell didn't get any sleep that night.

The following morning Giza went to see Aradace and take him to the canyon where the witches were training with their Wyverns. While she was putting the saddle on his neck, Aradace looked at her and made a quiet sound, almost like a whine, as if he was asking if she was okay.

-"I am fine, don't worry. Just a little night misadventure."- Giza said, trying to cover up the fact that she was yawning. Her dragon didn't really look like he trusted her answer, but he let her climb on the saddle and took off the balcony.

As they landed on one of the take off platform, Giza was greeted by the sight of a few humans helping a witch gathering with strapping to their saddles. She realized that it was the Blackbeak heiress and her gathering by the two witches with flaming red hair who she had met at training the other day.

Giza slid off the saddle. As her feet hit the ground, the humans backed away from the Wyverns. Now that she could see them more clearly, Giza noticed a man standing a few feet away, dressed in formal attire and with cold stone face. The same one that had escorted her to the Ferrian Gap. And then she realized why the collars from that hidden hall had looked so familiar.

There was the same one around his throat.


	6. Chapter 6

Giza was almost sure she was starting to go crazy. She was seeing the man with the black collar everywhere-while walking through the corridors, while training, she was almost sure she even saw him standing on a rock edge while she was flying through one of the canyons. And the smell. The disgusting smell that had been in her room the night she had found the secret door was now everywhere, filling Omega. And no one else seemed bothered.

Giza had woken up with a terrible headache. It felt like something was pounding against her forehead, trying to break her skull from the inside. She had gotten up and found a letter that had been slid under her door. There, in neat handwriting, was explained that she would have to attend a meeting with somebody called Duke Perrington together with the heiresses of the other three clans. Giza growled and crumbled the letter in her hand. There was a storm raging outside, so it wasn't like she really had something else to do except for that meeting, but she could imagine at least five things she would have preferred over going to it. But it wasn't really like she had a choice.

While she was walking through the corridors to one of the rooms at the depths of Omega, Giza's headache got stronger. Dark spots started dancing at the edges of her vision as she opened the door and sat down on a chair across the white-haired Blackbeak heiress. Manon, she remembered. At the other end of the table was sitting a person that probably had to be Duke Perrington. The moment Giza saw him she was suddenly sure this human could not be trusted. On his left was sitting a delicate woman with black hair and lifeless eyes that was staring blankly across the table. Around her throat was a collar from black stone, similar to the ones in the giant chamber with the stoves. The way this woman's eyes looked, dull and unfocused, like if she wasn't even there-Giza didn't like it. It creeped her out.

As the meeting started, Giza's headache got worse. She missed on half of the details about battle strategies, weapons and flying escadrilles that were discussed. Thank the Gods no one asked about her opinion. The meeting was over without her saying a word. Giza really wandered what was the point of her even coming. She basically dragged herself back to her room, and as she entered she tripped over something and fell down. The sound of her hitting the floor was muted by the pounding in her head, now so bad that she couldn't even get up. And then there was something else. Something she couldn't quite understand, that felt familiar and yet unknown. Giza felt something burning at the back of her throat. And then flames erupted from her hands, covering her entirely and hiding the room out of view. The pain in her head stopped. And the thing digging through her mind, whatever it was, simply vanished. Like it had never been there.

There was red, orange, blue and yellow dancing around Giza's vision, each flame shining like a gemstone. What was happening? If she was covered in flames, wasn't it supposed to be painful? Giza pressed her palms against the stone floor and slowly sat up. The flames pulled apart, getting smaller and smaller until they disappeared completely. Giza took a moment to gather her thoughts. This had been way too real to be some sort of hallucination. The only other explanation that came to her mind was magic, but that also impossible. Magic didn't exist anymore. Right? And why did that headache disappear all of a sudden?

Too many questions. There were too many questions and she had no answers.

"Then go and find your answers"

Giza jumped up and looked around the room. She was sure she heard a female voice say that.

-"Who…who is there?"

"You already know me. You are wearing my blessing around your neck."

Giza instinctively grabbed the piece of crystal hanging from the leather strap around her throat. The crystal was from the Midnight caver, which meant that the voice belonged to...

-"The Three-faced goddess."-Giza whispered. Either that or she was hearing voices.

"You guessed right."

-"You said something about answers. Where am I supposed to find them? Why I can suddenly touch fire without getting burned? Why…

"I told you already, child. You have to find those answers yourself. As for where to find them, look where even light is scared to enter."

-"To look where…what?"

There was no response.

-"Wait! Please!"

The room remained silent. It was obvious that she wasn't getting any more information from the goddess. Giza sat down on her bed. Where the light is scared to enter-what was that supposed to mean? Was it supposed to be the Midnight cavern? She sure as hell wasn't going back there. Or it meant something else? Giza looked around the room, eyes darting from the ceiling to the floor, until her gaze finally stopped at the big wardrobe. Of course. The door behind it. Giza started wandering if the Midnight cavern wasn't a better option.

She sighted, got up, and started pushing the wardrobe aside. Little by little, the door was revealed together with the staircase behind it. This time, Giza didn't forget to take her sword with her. She slowly stepped on the first stair, waiting for something to happen. The staircase remained silent. As she continued down, Giza turned around and looked at the door. She immediately wished she hadn't. The side of the door that was visible from the stairs was covered in claw marks from top to bottom. As if something had been trying to claw its way out from the inside. Giza shivered as her mind drew the picture of a creature with long claws crawling towards her bed at night. Thank the Gods she had pushed that wardrobe back in place, because the claw marks hadn't been there the first time she had gone down the staircase. Which meant that whatever had left them was probably still down here. Giza didn't like that thought. Gripping her sword tighter, she continued down.

As she reached the iron plate and the seven doors, Giza realized something. The swirling symbols carved in the iron were now forming words. She got closer and tried to make sense of the words and sentences, some of which were carved upside down. As she finally got that she had to follow the spiral to put them in order, she read what could only be some kind of riddled poem.

One for truth and two for lie

Three to live, four to die

Five for darkness, six for light

Seven beware, it's where the monsters hide

Giza read the thing five times and the only thing she understood was that each number was for an arc. The ark she had walked through before was the fifth, so that explained the darkness, but what did the others mean? Giza felt stupid, having in mind that the lines were pretty straight forward about what would happen to you depending on which arc you went through, but still. What were those monsters behind the seventh arc? Who would lie to her if she went through the second arc? This place was supposed to give her answers, but it just raised more questions. At the end, she decided to settle for the first arc. If it was marked with truth, then whatever answers she needed were probably there.

It was blocked. The first and the second arc were blocked by stones, probably fallen from the ceiling of the corridor. Giza pushed, kicked and tried whatever she could to get the stones to move, but they were way too heavy. She gave up and sat next to the wall, utterly exhausted. There was no way she was getting into that corridor. As she sat there defeated, there was a quiet noise coming from her left. Giza looked at the direction of the noise. There was nothing there. Deciding that she was imagining things, Giza got up and headed for the staircase.

-"Going so soon?"- a hissing voice asked from behind her. Giza turned at her heel and grabbed the hilt of her sword. There, barely five meters from her, was standing the man with the black collar. He looked the same as always, except that this time he was smiling, revealing a row of perfect white teeth. From the small distance Giza could now see that his hands were crowned with shining, polished iron claws. Longer and sharper than the ones Giza possessed.

-"You won't need that."-the man pointed at her drawn sword.-"It would be useless. Just surrender quietly and I would give you a painless death."

Giza just gripped the weapon tighter. And the man attacked.

He was way too fast for her. Before she could even swing the blade he grabbed her throat and lifted her from the ground. Giza tried to kick him, but her leg refused to move. Waves of darkness erupted from the man, filling the hall with darkness Giza couldn't see through. She wanted to get out of there, out of the grip of the claws digging into her throat.

"Let me go. Let me go. Let me go!"

Giza realized that she had screamed that aloud. The moment the words left her mouth Giza burst into flames. The man dropped her on the floor and she hit her head on one of the stones near the first arc. The last thing she saw before everything went dark was the man, screaming and rolling on the ground, flames covering him entirely.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note: The rhymes used in the previous chapter are very similar to the lyrics of a nursery rhyme called "One for sorrow". It does not, in any way, belong to me. Every right goes to the original author. I forgot to mention it in the previous chapter. Anyway, here is the new one. I hope it turned out good.

Manon did not like when she didn't know what to do. She always had a plan or a solution. Always. Except for now.

Two days ago, the Matron had called her in her cabinet, saying that there was something important that had to be discussed. Once there, her grandmother had told Manon to sit down and begun:

-"Do you know how witches are born, Manon?"-the question was strange, but she had learned to not to question her grandmother and keep her mouth shut unless she was asked to talk.

-"We are born from the union of a witch with a human, and we always have the same traits as our mothers, the same iron claws and the same blue blood."-the Matron paused for a second, then continued-"Do you know, however, how Silverstorms are born? How are they different than us? Why there has never been a case of a Silverstorm witch ever seen with others like her?

There was a moment of silence, and then Manon dared to ask:

-"Why?"

-"Because there was never a clan of them, Manon. It never existed. The Silverstorms are such rare sight, because they are created from the union of a witch and a Fae male. And unlike ours, their blood runs red."

It took Manon a few seconds to make the connection.

-"According to this, Giza Silverstorm is half Fae. I would not have bothered to tell you this, however, if there wasn't a bit to this story I only recently learned. The mother of that girl is no other than my daughter, who I thought was dead a very long time before she really was. Giza Silverstorm is your sister, Manon, and I want her on our side at the Military games, and on our side at the coming war. I do not care how are you going to do it, or how are you going to explain this to her. I want it done in time before the Military Games. Understood?

Manon was quiet for a moment, then responded, trying her best to keep her voice neutral:

-"It will be done."

-"I hope so. After that little stunt you pulled, choosing the runt as you Wyvern…I won't accept any more mistakes, Manon."-The Matron's eyes were cold-"You are free."

After that, Manon had thought a lot about the conversation. Wandering how she was supposed to tell a fourteen year old girl that everything she knew about her past was a lie, and that she was her half-sister. The fact that her mother had been alive long after she was born somehow didn't have such a big impact on her. She had never known her, and the fact that she was dead remained the same, no matter when or how she had died. But now she had a sister, and that wasn't something normal for most witches. Their kind rarely had more than one child, twins were considered a miracle, and two children one after another were something that Manon didn't remember ever happening in her time on this world.

A scream sounded down the corridor, echoing through the stone halls. Manon wouldn't have paid much attention to it, in this mountain screams were something that was heard quite often. A few seconds later however somebody started frantically knocking on her door. Manon got up and opened it, snarling with her iron teeth out. In front of the door was one of the female servants, who stumbled a few feet back, stuttering nonsense.

-"What did you say?"

The woman didn't respond. Manon grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

-"Speak!"

-"I….that door…lady Giza…so much blood…"-the woman was clearly in a shock. Manon let go and rushed down the corridor, turned the corner and stopped before the door of Giza's room. It was already pushed wide open, and there was a pile of cleaned sheets dropped on the floor, probably from the servant. Manon went in and looked around, eyes stopping on the giant door at the other side of the room and the girl sitting with her back pressed against it, blood dripping from her hands and her clothes. It was clearly not hers-it and smelled somehow wrong.

Giza raised her head and looked at Manon, eyes weary and tired. Her face had scratches all over it, like she had fought with someone…or something.

-"What is the meaning of this?"

-"Oh well, where do I begin…"

Giza could only guess how she looked from aside after the fight in tunnels. Turned out, the man with the black collar was not the only thing that lurked in the tunnels. And just as she had guessed, whatever had left the scratches on the door had still been down there.

It had crawled out from one of the tunnels. Right after Giza had woken up. It had been hanging upside down from the ceiling of one of the tunnels, digging the claws at the ends of its long, bonny limbs between the bricks. It had jumped off and tackled her to the ground, its giant, grotesque teeth centimeters from her face. Giza had managed to throw it off and get up, getting a better look at whatever it was.

It had the bone structure of a large wolf but without fur. It was a skeleton with covered in skin, without eyes or ears. It was the type of thing from the old fairytales Giza had heard travelers tell around the bonfire at night.

The fight had not been pretty. Even after Giza had sliced the creature's head off, it took several minutes for it to fall on the ground and truly die. She had pierced its chest with her sword after-just to be sure.

She had just managed to climb the stairs and slam the door shut behind her when that servant had seen her and screamed so loud that probably the entire mountain heard. Then she had ran off, and now Giza was facing the angry Wingleader. Giza didn't really have many options, and she was way too tired to come up with a convincing answer, so she had just told Manon the truth. She hadn't shown a single emotion through Giza's story, and after she finished it, Manon had grabbed her arm, pulled her on her feet, kicked the door open and told her to prove it.

-"What the hell is that?"-Manon asked, kicking the headless body of the creature with the tip of her boot.

-"I don't know. But it doesn't smell right."

-"Nothing here does."-Manon looked up and sniffed the air.-"There was somebody else here."

She turned around and went to the other side of the hall, where there was a pile of ash and a black collar-the only things left from the man that had attacked Giza. Manon bend down and picked up the collar, turning it in her hands.

-"That did not figurate in your story."

-"I don't know what it is."

-"Do not lie to me, girl. There are leftovers of this smell on you."

Giza stayed quiet, keeping her mouth shut. There was no way to come up with a valid explanation, and telling Manon that she could summon flames, which, Giza had come to the conclusion, could be nothing but magic, was like was ordering her own execution.

-"You either tell me or face the consequences. And believe me, they will not be pretty."-Manon shook her wrist and took out her iron claws. Giza stepped back. She was scared. She felt like a cornered animal.

Manon had forgotten something though. A lesson Giza had learned from the long years spent in the forests.

Cornered animals bite.

A wall of flame erupted between Giza and Manon, sending the older witch stumbling back. This gave Giza an opening. She jumped left and ran into one of the corridors, not even bothering to see which. She could hear footsteps running after her, so she sped up.

It was so dark ahead that Giza couldn't see further than her nose. So she could do nothing when she tripped and her outstretched hands did not hit the floor.

The collar of her cloak dug into her neck and cut her air as somebody pulled her from behind and stopped her from falling into whatever dark pit was before her. Giza stumbled back, gasping, and faced Manon, the ends of whose hair were steaming. She looked ready to kill.

-"If you don't stop running, I am going to rip your guts out and throw you into that pit."- Manon was blocking the way out of the corridor, so Giza had no way to escape this time.-"You summoned those flames, I am sure of that, but you don't know why or how. So if you want an explanation, stop trying to run away and let me explain."

-"What do you mean that you can explain? I can't even explain it, and now you suddenly have an answer and I am supposed to trust you?"

-"I don't think you have a lot of options."

Giza sighted. She was right.

-"Alright then. I am listening."


End file.
